Somenew facts about Auschwitz are at last beginning to make a tentativeappearance. They are contained in a recent work called Die Auschwitz-Lüge:EinErlebnisbericht von Theis Christopherson (The Auschwitz Legends:An Account ofhis Experiences by Thies Christopherson, KritikVerlag/Mohrkirch, 1973).Published by the German lawyer Dr. ManfredRoeder in the periodical DeutscheBürger-Iniative, it is an eye-witnessaccount of Auschwitz by ThiesChristopherson, who was sent tothe Bunawerk plant laboratories at Auschwitz toresearch intothe production of synthetic rubber for the Kaiser WilhelmInstitute.

In May 1973, not long after the appearance of this account, theveteran Jewish "Nazi-hunter" Simon Wiesenthal wrote to the FrankfurtChamber ofLawyers, demanding that the publisher and author ofthe Forward, Dr. Roeder, amember of the Chamber, should be broughtbefore its disciplinary commission.Sure enough, proceedings beganin July, but not without harsh criticism evenfrom the Press,who asked "Is Simon Wiesenthal the new Gauleiter of Germany?"(DeutscheWochenzeitung, July 27th, 1973).

Christopherson's account is certainlyone of the most important documents for a re-appraisal of Auschwitz.He spentthe whole of 1944 there, during which time he visitedall of the separate campscomprising the large Auschwitz complex,including Auschwitz-Birkenau where it isalleged that wholesalemassacres of Jews took place. Christopherson, however, isin nodoubt that this is totally untrue. He writes: "I was in AuschwitzfromJanuary 1944 until December 1944. After the war I heard aboutthe mass murderswhich were supposedly perpetrated by the S.S.against the Jewish prisoners, andI was perfectly astonished.

Despite all the evidence of witnesses, all thenewspaper reportsand radio broadcasts I still do not believe today in thesehorribledeeds. I have said this many times and in many places, but to nopurpose. One is never believed" (p. 16). Space forbids a detailedsummary hereof the author's experiences at Auschwitz, which includefacts about camp routineand the daily life of prisoners totallyat variance with the allegations ofpropaganda (pp. 22-7).

Moreimportant are his revelations about the supposedexistence ofan extermination camp. "During the whole of my time at Auschwitz,lnever observed the slightest evidence of mass gassings. Moreover,the odour ofburning flesh that is often said to have hung overthe camp is a downrightfalsehood. In the vicinity of the maincamp (Auschwitz I) was a large farrier'sworks, from which thesmell of molten iron was naturally not pleasant" (p.33-4). Reitlingerconfirms that there were five blast furnaces and fivecollieriesat Auschwitz, which together with the Bunawerk factories comprisedAuschwitz III (ibid. p. 452).

The author agrees that a crematoriumwouldcertainly have existed at Auschwitz, "since 200,000 peoplelived there, and inevery city with 200,000 inhabitants therewould be a crematorium. Naturallypeople died there -- but notonly prisoners. In fact the wife ofObersturmbannführer A. (Christopherson'ssuperior) also died there" (p. 33). Theauthor explains: "Therewere no secrets at Auschwitz. In September 1944 acommission ofthe International Red Cross came to the camp for an inspection.

They were particularly interested in the camp at Birkenau, thoughwe also hadmany inspections at Raisko" (Bunawerk section, p.35). Christopherson points outthat the constant visits to Auschwitzby outsiders cannot be reconciled withallegations of mass extermination.When describing the visit of his wife to thecamp in May, he observes:"The fact that it was possible to receive visits fromour relativesat any time demonstrates the openness of the camp administration.

Had Auschwitz been a great extermination camp, we would certainlynot have beenable to receive such visits" (p. 27). After thewar, Christopherson came to hearof the alleged existence of abuilding with gigantic chimneys in the vicinity ofthe main camp."This was supposed to be the crematorium. However, I must recordthe fact that when I left the camp at Auschwitz in December 1944,I had not seenthis building there" (p. 37). Does this mysteriousbuilding exist today?Apparently not; Reitlinger claims it wasdemolished and "completely burnt out infull view of the camp"in October, though Christopherson never saw this publicdemolition.

Although it is said to have taken place "in full view of the camp",it was allegedly seen by only one Jewish witness, a certain Dr.Bendel, and hisis the only testimony to the occurrence (Reitlinger,ibid, p. 457). Thissituation is generally typical. When it comesdown to hard evidence, it isstrangely elusive; the building was"demolished", the document is "lost", theorder was "verbal".At Auschwitz today, visitors are shown a small furnace andherethey are told that millions of people were exterminated.

The SovietStateCommission which "investigated" the camp announced on May12th, 1945, that"Using rectified coefficients . . . the technicalexpert commission hasascertained that during the time that theAuschwitz camp existed, the Germanbutchers exterminated in thiscamp not less than four million citizens ..."Reitlinger's surprisinglyfrank comment on this is perfectly adequate:

"Theworld has grownmistrustful of 'rectified coefficients' and the figure of fourmillionshas become ridiculous" (ibid, p. 460). Finally, the account of Mr.Christopherson draws attention to a very curious circumstance.The onlydefendant who did not appear at the Frankfurt AuschwitzTrial in 1963 wasRichard Baer, the successor of Rudolf Hössas commandant of Auschwitz. Though inperfect health, he diedsuddenly in prison before the trial had begun, "in ahighly mysteriousway" according to the newspaper; Deutsche Wochenzeitung (July27th,1973).

Baer's sudden demise before giving evidence is especiallystrange,since the Paris newspaper Rivarol recorded his insistencethat "during the wholetime in which he governed Auschwitz, henever saw any gas chambers nor believedthat such things existed,"and from this statement nothing would dissuade him.In short,the Christopherson account adds to a mounting collection of evidencedemonstrating that the giant industrial complex of Auschwitz (comprisingthirtyseparate installations and divided by the main Vienna-Cracowrailway line) wasnothing but a vast war production centre, which,while admittedly employing thecompulsory labour of detainees,was certainly not a place of "massextermination".

Auschwitz: Myths and Facts

By Mark Weber

Auschwitz
is regarded as the most notorious Nazi extermination center. During
World War II, we are told, hundreds of thousands of prisoners — most of
them Jewish — were systematically killed there, especially in gas
chambers.

Auschwitz
was unquestionably a place of horror, where many perished under
terrible circumstances. And yet, much of what has been said about the
camp is exaggerated or untrue. A close look at the facts calls into
question at least some aspects of its reputation as a center of
systematic mass extermination.

A Large Camp Complex

The
Auschwitz camp complex was set up in 1940 in what is now south-central
Poland. Large numbers of Jews were deported there between 1942 and
mid-1944. The main camp was known as Auschwitz I. Birkenau, or Auschwitz
II, was supposedly the main extermination center, while Monowitz, or
Auschwitz III, was a large industrial site where gasoline was produced
from coal. In addition there were dozens of smaller satellite camps
devoted to the war economy.

Four Million Victims?

At
the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, the Allies charged that the Germans
exterminated four million people at Auschwitz. This figure, which was
invented by the Soviets, was uncritically accepted for many years, and
often appeared in major American newspapers and magazines. [1] Today no
reputable historian accepts it.

Israeli
Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer said in 1989 that it is finally time
to acknowledge that the familiar four million figure is a deliberate
myth. In July 1990 the Auschwitz State Museum in Poland, along with
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Center, announced that altogether perhaps
one million people (both Jews and non-Jews) died there. Neither
institution would say how many of these people were killed, and no
estimates were given for the numbers of those supposedly gassed. [2]

One
prominent Holocaust historian, Gerald Reitlinger, estimated that
perhaps 700,000 Jews perished at Auschwitz. [3] French Holocaust
historian Jean-Claude Pressac estimated in 1993 that the number of those
who perished there was about 800,000 – of whom 630,000 were Jewish. [4]

Fritjof
Meyer, a respected foreign policy analyst, author of several books, and
managing editor of Germany’s foremost weekly news magazine, presented a
still lower figure in 2002. Writing in the scholarly German journal Osteuropa, he estimated that altogether 500,000 or 510,000 persons — Jews and non-Jews — perished in Auschwitz. [5]

While all such figures are conjectural, they show how the Auschwitz story has changed drastically over the years.

Fake 'Gas Chamber'

Each
year for decades, tens of thousands of visitors to Auschwitz have been
shown an execution "gas chamber" in the main camp, supposedly in its
"original state." In January 1995 the prestigious French weekly magazine
L'Express acknowledged that "everything” about this "gas
chamber” is “false,” and that it is in fact a deceitful postwar
reconstruction. [6]

Bizarre Tales

At
one time it was seriously claimed that at Auschwitz Jews were
systematically killed with electricity. American newspapers in February
1945, citing a Soviet eyewitness report from the recently-liberated
camp, told readers that the methodical Germans had killed Jews there
using an "electric conveyor belt on which hundreds of persons could be
electrocuted simultaneously [and] then moved on into furnaces. They were
burned almost instantly, producing fertilizer for nearby cabbage
fields." [7]

At
the Nuremberg Tribunal, chief US prosecutor Robert Jackson charged that
the Germans had used a "newly invented" device to instantaneously
"vaporize" 20,000 Jews near Auschwitz "in such a way that there was no
trace left of them." [8] No reputable historian now accepts either of
these fanciful tales.

The Höss 'Confession'

A
key piece of Holocaust evidence is the "confession" of former Auschwitz
commandant Rudolf Höss. In a sworn statement, and in testimony before
the Nuremberg Tribunal on April 15, 1946, he declared that between May
1940 and December 1943, while he was commandant of the camp complex, "at
least two and a half million victims were executed and exterminated
there by gassing and burning," and that "at least another half million
succumbed to starvation and disease, making a total dead of about three
million" during that period alone. [9]

Although
it is still widely cited as solid historical evidence, this
"confession" is actually a false statement obtained by torture. Some
years after the war, British military intelligence sergeant Bernard
Clarke described how he and five other British soldiers tortured the
former commandant to obtain his "confession." Höss himself privately
explained his ordeal in these words: "Certainly, I signed a statement
that I killed two and half million Jews. I could just as well have said
that it was five million Jews. There are certain methods by which any
confession can be obtained, whether it is true or not." [10]

Even
historians who generally accept the Holocaust extermination story now
acknowledge that many of the specific statements made in the Höss
"confession" are simply not true. For one thing, no serious scholar now
claims that anything like two and a half or three million people
perished in Auschwitz.

The
Höss "confession" further alleges that Jews were already being
exterminated by gas in the summer of 1941 at three other camps: Belzec,
Treblinka and Wolzek. The "Wolzek" camp mentioned by Höss is a total
invention. No such camp existed, and the name is no longer mentioned in
Holocaust literature. Moreover, those who accept the Holocaust story
currently claim that gassings of Jews did not begin at Auschwitz,
Treblinka, or Belzec until sometime in 1942.

Many Jewish Inmates Unable to Work

Many
thousands of secret German wartime documents dealing with Auschwitz
were confiscated after the war by the Allies. But not a single one
refers to a policy or program of extermination. In fact, the familiar
Auschwitz extermination story cannot be reconciled with the documentary
evidence.

It
is often claimed that all Jews at Auschwitz who were unable to work
were immediately killed. Jews who were too old, young, sick, or weak
were supposedly gassed on arrival, and only those who could be worked to
death were temporarily kept alive.

But
the evidence shows otherwise. In fact, a very high percentage of the
Jewish inmates were not able to work, and were nevertheless not killed.
For example, an internal German telex message dated Sept. 4, 1943, from
the chief of the Labor Allocation department of the SS Economic and
Administrative Main Office (WVHA), reported that of 25,000 Jews held in
Auschwitz, only 3,581 were able to work, and that all of the remaining
Jewish inmates — some 21,500, or about 86 percent — were unable to work.
[11]

This
is also confirmed in a secret report dated April 5, 1944, on "security
measures in Auschwitz" by Oswald Pohl, head of the SS concentration camp
system, to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Pohl reported that there was a
total of 67,000 inmates in the entire Auschwitz camp complex, of whom
18,000 were hospitalized or disabled. In the Auschwitz II camp
(Birkenau), supposedly the main extermination center, there were 36,000
inmates, mostly female, of whom "approximately 15,000 are unable to
work." [12]

The
evidence shows that Auschwitz-Birkenau was established primarily as a
camp for Jews who were not able to work, including the sick and elderly,
as well as for those who were temporarily awaiting assignment to other
camps. That is the considered view of Dr. Arthur Butz of Northwestern
University, who also says that this was an important reason for the
unusually high death rate there. [13]

Jewish
scholar Arno Mayer, a professor of history at Princeton University,
acknowledges in his 1988 book about the "final solution" that more Jews
perished at Auschwitz as a result of typhus and other "natural" causes
than were executed. [14]

Anne Frank

Perhaps
the best known Auschwitz inmate was Anne Frank, who is remembered for
her famous diary. But few people are aware that thousands of Jews,
including Anne and her father, Otto Frank, "survived" Auschwitz.

The
15-year-old girl and her father were deported from the Netherlands to
Auschwitz in September 1944. Several weeks later, in the face of the
advancing Soviet army, Anne was evacuated from Auschwitz along with many
other Jews to the Bergen-Belsen camp in western Germany, where she died
of typhus in March 1945. While at Auschwitz, Otto Frank came down with
typhus, and was sent to the camp hospital to recover. He was one of
thousands of sick and feeble Jews who were left behind when the Germans
abandoned the camp in January 1945, shortly before it was overrun by the
Soviets. He died in Switzerland in 1980.

If
the German policy had been to kill Anne Frank and her father, they
would not have survived Auschwitz. Their fate, tragic though it was,
cannot be reconciled with the familiar extermination story.

Allied Propaganda

The
Auschwitz gassing story is based in large part on the hearsay
statements of former Jewish inmates who did not personally see any
actual signs of extermination. Their beliefs are understandable, because
rumors about gassings at Auschwitz were widespread. Allied planes
dropped large numbers of leaflets, written in Polish and German, on
Auschwitz and the surrounding areas which claimed that people were being
gassed in the camp. The Auschwitz gassing story, which was an important
part of the Allied wartime propaganda effort, was also broadcast to
Europe by Allied radio stations. [15]

Survivor Testimony

Former inmates have confirmed that they saw no evidence of extermination at Auschwitz.

An
Austrian woman, Maria Vanherwaarden, testified about her camp
experiences in a Toronto District Court in March 1988. [16] She was
interned in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 for having sexual relations with a
Polish forced laborer. On the train journey to the camp, a Gypsy woman
told her and the others that they would all be gassed at Auschwitz. Upon
arrival, Maria and the other women were ordered to undress and go into a
large concrete room without windows to take a shower. The terrified
women were sure that they were about to die. But then, instead of gas,
water came out of the shower heads.

Auschwitz
was no vacation resort, Maria confirmed. She witnessed the deaths of
many fellow inmates by disease, particularly typhus. She saw some take
their own lives. But she saw no evidence at all of mass killings,
gassings, or of any extermination program.

A
Jewish woman named Marika Frank arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau from
Hungary in July 1944, when 25,000 Jews were supposedly gassed and
cremated daily. She likewise testified after the war that she heard and
saw nothing of gas chambers during the time she was interned there. She
heard the gassing stories only later. [17]

Inmates Released

More
than 200,000 prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz to other camps,
and about 8,000 were in the camp when it was liberated by Soviet forces.
In addition, about 1,500 prisoners who had served their sentences were
released, and returned to their home countries. [18] If Auschwitz had
actually been a top secret extermination center, it is difficult to
believe that the German authorities would have released inmates who
“knew” what was happening there.

Telltale Aerial Photos

Detailed
Allied aerial reconnaissance photographs taken of Auschwitz-Birkenau on
several random days in 1944 — during the height of the alleged
extermination period there — were made public by the CIA in 1979. These
photos show no trace of piles of corpses, smoking crematory chimneys or
masses of Jews awaiting death, things that have been repeatedly alleged,
and all of which would have been visible if Auschwitz had been the
extermination center it is said to have been. [19]

Absurd Cremation Claims

Cremation
specialists have confirmed that thousands of corpses could not possibly
have been cremated every day throughout the spring and summer of 1944
at Auschwitz, as has often been alleged. Ivan Lagacé, manager of a large
crematory in Canada, testified in court in April 1988 that the
Auschwitz cremation story is technically impossible. The allegation that
10,000 or even 20,000 corpses were burned every day at Auschwitz in the
summer of 1944 in crematories and open pits is simply "preposterous"
and "beyond the realm of reality," he declared under oath. [20]

Gassing Expert Refutes Extermination Story

A
leading American gas chamber expert, Fred A. Leuchter, carefully
examined the supposed "gas chambers" in Poland and concluded that the
Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically impossible. At the
time he conducted his examination, Leuchter was acknowledged as the
foremost specialist on the design and installation of gas chambers used
in the United States to execute convicted criminals. For example, he
designed a gas chamber facility for the Missouri state penitentiary.

In
February 1988 he carried out a detailed onsite examination of the "gas
chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek in Poland, which are
either still standing or only partially in ruins. In sworn testimony to a
Toronto court and in a technical report, Leuchter described every
aspect of his investigation. He concluded that the alleged gassing
facilities could not possibly have been used to kill people. Among other
things, he pointed out that the so-called "gas chambers" were not
properly sealed or vented to kill human beings without also killing
German camp personnel. [21]

Dr.
William B. Lindsey, a research chemist employed for 33 years by the
Dupont Corporation, likewise testified in a 1985 court case that the
Auschwitz gassing story is technically impossible. Based on a careful
on-site examination of the "gas chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and
Majdanek, and on his years of experience, he declared: "I have come to
the conclusion that no one was willfully or purposefully killed with
Zyklon B [hydrocyanic acid gas] in this manner. I consider it absolutely
impossible." [22]

In
March 1992, a prominent Austrian engineer made headlines when a report
he had written about alleged German wartime gas chambers was made
public. Walter Lüftl, a court-recognized expert engineer who headed a
large engineering firm in Vienna, concluded that the familiar stories of
mass extermination of Jews in gas chambers at the wartime camps of
Auschwitz and Mauthausen are impossible for technical reasons. Lüftl
also specifically affirmed Leuchter’s findings about Auschwitz. [23]

Himmler Orders Death Rate Reduced

In
response to the deaths of many inmates from disease, especially typhus,
the German authorities responsible for the camps ordered firm
counter-measures. The head of the SS camp administration office sent a
directive dated Dec. 28, 1942, to Auschwitz and the other concentration
camps. It sharply criticized the high death rate of inmates due to
disease, and ordered that "camp physicians must use all means at their
disposal to significantly reduce the death rate in the various camps."

Furthermore,
it ordered: "The camp doctors must supervise more often than in the
past the nutrition of the prisoners and, in cooperation with the
administration, submit improvement recommendations to the camp
commandants ... The camp doctors are to see to it that the working
conditions at the various labor places are improved as much as
possible."

Finally,
the directive stressed that "the Reichsführer SS [Heinrich Himmler] has
ordered that the death rate absolutely must be reduced." [24]

Combating Disease

As
ordered, German physicians in Auschwitz carried out wide-ranging and
intensive measures to reduce the prisoners’ death rate. For example, in a
letter of Feb. 25, 1943, camp physician Dr. Wirths informed the central
WVHA office, which was responsible for the SS concentration camp
system:

“As
already reported, after the typhus epidemic in the Auschwitz camp had
practically been suppressed in November and December, there followed a
new rise in typhus cases among the Auschwitz inmates as well as among
troops, brought by the newly arriving transports from the East. In spite
of the counter-measures that were immediately taken, a complete
suppression of typhus cases has still not been achieved.” [25]

None of this can be reconciled with the currently official Auschwitz extermination story.

Summary

Maintaining
the hatreds and passions of the past prevents genuine reconciliation
and lasting peace. The Auschwitz extermination story originated as World
War II propaganda. And all wartime propaganda, unless hatred and
passion are to have the final word, must be viewed critically. It is
high time to take a more objective look at this highly polemicized
chapter of history.

Mark
Weber studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the
University of Munich, Portland State University and Indiana University
(M.A., 1977). For five days in March 1988 he testified in a Toronto
District Court case as a recognized expert on the “Final Solution” and
the Holocaust issue.